Ron Zarem and the Michigan Crew started
arriving on Friday May 4th.
As always, right from the start there seemed to be great interest in
who would win the coveted ‘Tim’s Favorite” award. The first and
most obvious choice was Ron himself who has been organizing these
events for 15 years, but since Ron is also a Trustee, conflict of
interest regulations disqualify Ron. Ron brought two of his sons this
year, Mark
and Mike.
As he did last year, Mark prepared a fantastic turkey dinner for the
crew Sunday night, donated by Jack Ernes DE-148 from California. I
inadvertently created a lot of disharmony in the Zarem clan last year
when I gave Pat Zarem
credit for cooking the turkeys when it was in fact, Mark who prepared
the dinner. Pat seems to have a way of getting credit for things he
didn't do. It seems that every time something went wrong in the
galley, it was Pat’s fault, even though he wasn’t there, right
down to forgetting to bring down the cranberry sauce to the messdeck
for the second year in a row.

The logistics were handled by the galley
crew led by our own Chief Bernard Smith.
If anybody deserves an award it’s Smitty because the event might
not have happened without him. When Tom
Schriner passed away, nobody in
Michigan stepped forward to replace the cook, and Smitty graciously
agreed to cook three meals a day for a week to feed the hungry crew.
He was supported by Larry Stiles in
the galley and Ron Orszag who
took care of the messdeck. SLATER WWII vet Bill Svihovec was back and
made the whole week as their compartment cleaner.

The welding team of Laird Confer and Bernie
Wright spent the week working on the exhaust fan room on the 01 level
forward. As with so many of our fan
rooms, they are badly rotted out in desperate need of attention.
Under Doug Tanner’s
direction, they cut away all the wasted metal, scaled, Corrosealed
and primed the space, and welded up several bulkhead holes. Laird
certainly deserves an award, but Ron has rules about being “Tim’s
favorite” and since Laird had already won in 2008, he was
disqualified.

Now, if anybody deserved an award it was the
shaft alley crew. In the absence of
Dow Clark,
Laird’s grandsons Garret Mauer
and Brandon Reese, along
with the late Dick Breil’s
grandson,

Brett Bennett,
agreed to tackle the port shaft alley. Over two days they hauled out
about four or five gallon pails of rust, scraped and chipped from the
bilges. On Wednesday, we gave the two Confers a break and let them
work with grandpa. But Brandon said he was fine going back there to
Corroseal the space, so he went down with Mike
Zarem, and they got the whole place
treated with the rust inhibitor. That, to me, was certainly worthy of
an award, but Ron has a lot of rules, and since the Confers had won
in 2009, they were disqualified, and since Brett was a first-timer,
he was disqualified.

The mechanical crew was certainly worthy of
an award. Three-inch-gun number one
had locked up in train, a crisis since this is the one the public
gets to operate. We set “Butch” Warrender, Guy Huse,
Mark Zarem and Gary
Dieckman on it. Over the course of
the week, they completely tore down the train assembly, cleaned it,
replaced all the bearings, most amazingly, got it back together and
sealed it so it won't deteriorate in the future. I let them struggle
with it Monday, and it was Tuesday morning that I had a memory flash
about having the tech manual on the drive somewhere. I went to our
librarian Frank Peter,
and sure enough, he found a Xerox copy of “ELEVATION &
TRAIN POWER DRIVE MK 31 MOD 0-3 FOR 3 INCH 50 & MOUNT MK 26”that had been donated to us by
the good folks on the SS JOHN W. BROWN about a year or so ago. I
wasn't hallucinating. Needless to say, that did make the job go a
little easier, and it works beautifully. Now, Gary had a leg up on
everybody, because as the owner of a printing company, he had already
donated the layout and printing of all the materials used in the Hull
Fund Appeal, saving us several thousand dollars. But Ron has rules,
and accomplishments outside the scope of the field week can't count
towards the award. And, Butch was disqualified because he had won
last year with Jim Parker
for getting the messdecks scuttlebutt working. Mike Zarem skipped out
early because of work commitments, so that disqualified Mike. And Guy
is technically part of the HUSE group, so that disqualified him.

Meanwhile, Jim Parker got water to the
wardroom pantry for the first time since 1991, and that was
considered a major accomplishment.
We also now have the potential to get our ice machine back in
operation. Jim also tightened up a loose long wire antenna insulator
that had been annoying Jerry Jones
for the past year and cleaned up and repaired the bridge windshield
wipers. But as I said, since he won last year he was disqualified.

Fire controlman Dick Walker was back on the
flying bridge with Air Force vet Gary Headworth.
They replaced broken glass on the Mark 52 director, and scaled,
primed and preserved the director air compressor and the deck under
it. Again, the weather created a lot of problems for them. They work
high enough up in the ship that nobody ever goes up to check on them,
so we just have to take their word that they are doing anything. Lack
of verification disqualified them both.

Everyone who really knows me knows that I
believe the world revolves around paint. I must have been a
Boatswain’s Mate in a past life or something.
We had two paint crews going. Ron
Zarem’s crew took on the aft 40mm
gun tub, to finish a job they had started last year. With him he had
John Adriani
and Emmett Landrum.
Now the weather over the week couldn't have been worse for painting.
It was sunny Monday and showered the whole rest of the week. The
outside of the tub was easy, but inside the arduous part of the task
was scaling and painting all the 164 shell clips. Once that was done,
painting proceeded slowly between rain showers. The oldest man in the
crew, Emmett Landrum,
had also come the farthest, from California. He certainly deserved an
award, but had already been recognized in 2010, so he was
disqualified.

That left the bridge crew. Scott McFadden,
Bill Wasko, Mike Zarem, Marty Cole
and Ron Mazure put
on a stellar performance in spite of the weather. They managed to
scale, Corroseal, prime and paint the entire bridge face
superstructure from the 02 level to the flying bridge, all the way
around and including the overhead under the flying bridge lookout
chairs. An Annapolis graduate, former officer and gentleman who
doesn't mind getting dirty, Scott kept his team sober, took advantage
of every break in the weather to finish a job I didn't think they had
a chance of finishing. They also found time to insulate the outboard
bulkhead of the electronics shop below the messdeck, and did a lot of
scaling on the pumps and the Sharples lube oil purifier in B-3. But
Scott came within a hair of losing the award when he started bragging
to people he had it in the bag on Tuesday afternoon. Ron has always
referred to Scott as his “Bastard Son” and that might have
disqualified him right there on the nepotism issue, but since the
parentage is uncertain, we won't dig any deeper into the issue. Bill,
Mike and Marty would have shared it with Scott if they hadn't left a
day early. And Ron will chip anything, but he hates painting. That
left Scott, and two other things worked in his favor; the fact that
the award has never gone to an officer and the fact that I heard a
rumor that even his wife Joanne didn't think he had a chance.

The paint hadn’t dried and the bunks were
still warm when the USS HUSE crew began to arrive. George Amandola’s
crew has evolved into a well-oiled machine where everybody seems to
know their place before they get here. The crew was supported by
cooks John Malvasio
and John Nicotra with
Joe Colletti
in the galley and Wally Bringslid
on the messdecks. Ernie Aeschilman
was the compartment cleaner, but
worked over the whole ship, sweeping and swabbing decks, cleaning
corners, wiping down bulkheads and cleaning hatchways. Roland
Robbins and Bill Meehan always take
over the paint locker, and I wish I had those guys in Albany year
round. The first thing they do is resurrect all our hard stiff paint
brushes that get dumped in thinner from previous jobs. They mix the
paint, issue the paint, restow the paint and clean the brushes,
making painting a whole lot more efficient.

We originally tasked the mechanical crew
with repairing gun 2 which was jammed in elevation. Doug Streiter,
Anthony Amandola, Guy Huse and
Brandon Easley took on the job. As
it turned out, the bearings were still good and the job didn’t
require the major disassembly required for the train on gun 1. They
had it operating well by Monday night, leaving them free for other
tasks. They went on to do a complete lubrication of gun 3. The
ordnance work finished, Guy returned to working on his fire pump in
B-4. Doug and Anthony went on to tackle plumbing problems. Those of
you who remember those old Navy sinks with three spring-loaded
handles may recall that repairing them was a bitch, if you could find
the gaskets and O rings. Doug and Anthony went through all our
leaking faucets, and made a bunch of extra gaskets and by the end of
the week, none of our sinks were leaking. And, our regular crew
certainly appreciated the extra washers that Doug left for us.

Tuesday, Brandon and Anthony went in another
direction, down into the starboard shaft alley.
I had been joking since the beginning of the week about finding
someone to scale the starboard shaft alley. Brandon, having never
been in the Navy, but being the youngest and fittest member of the
crew just assumed that sending someone to “Shaft Alley” was
another one of those bad Navy jokes he wasn’t clued in on. When he
found out I wasn’t joking and saw the condition of the space, as
well as what Brandon, Garrett and Brent had done on the portside, he
agreed to go in with a needle gun. Not wanting to be left out of a
dirty job, Anthony Amandola
agreed to go in with him. They spent all Tuesday down there and did a
great job prepping the space for preservation and painting. We had
one scare when one spot near the keel seemed to continue to slowly
fill with water. However, it turned out that it was water trapped
under the scale coming to the surface. When we got it clean, it
finally dried out. Unfortunately Brandon had to leave Wednesday, but
if the HUSE crew gave a damn about who was “Tim’s favorite,” it
would have to be Brandon and Anthony for tackling that miserable job.

The crew kept several paint projects going.
Ron Frankosky, Lew Shelton, Jan Schweiger
and Gene Hermanson
worked on the replica floater nets. They took the five nets out of
the baskets, repaired the deteriorated floats and repainted them flat
black, another difficult job in the rain. Gene
Hermanson, Derwent Cartmell and Jim
Larner went to work scaling and
priming stanchions on the 01 level. Hillman
Jackson worked with Jaye
Robbins, Roland and Bill
to scale the aft three- inch gun tub and get it ready for painting.
Up on the bridge, Joe Delfoe
worked with Jan Schweiger to prep the inboard bulkheads and flagbags
for painting. Down on the main deck, Robin
Larner worked on the inboard side of
the port breakwater, again, chipping and painting.

For three days it looked like, paint-wise,
the work week was going to be a washout with none of the jobs
completed. But Thursday dawned
bright, sunny, dry and beautiful. The crew really turned to, and
given one day of great weather, managed to get paint on all the
surfaces they had prepped in the preceding three days. Ron
Frankosky, Lew Shelton and
Jan Schweiger got the inboard side
of the bridge bulwark and the forward 20mm gun completed and top
coated with Imron Epoxy. They also managed to get all the floater net
floats painted flat black. Robin
Larner, Gene and Derwent
got the inside of the port breakwater spray shield top coated. And
Roland and
Jaye Robbins
with Bill Meehan
got the exterior of the shield around gun number three painted. It
was a great effort on their one good day.

Special kudos goes to Guy Huse, for staying
over for both weeks. He worked on
both gun mount projects. In B-4 he rerouted a water drain line that
had been dumping water into the bilge into a new collection bucket.
He got the priming tank for the fire pump priming pump Corrosealed,
primed and mounted and began working on the connections. He forgot a
couple of packs of tofu sausage in the bottom left of the Chiefs
fridge, and we’ve put them in the freezer for his next visit. And
special thanks to Jan and Robin, who as the only female participants
this year outworked many of us guys. George told them that next year
they each have to bring along another female friend who works as hard
as they do.

We also hosted our annual Key Bank
“Neighbors Make a Difference” Work Day on Thursday May 24th.
Eleven bankers showed up and with the help of Bill
Wetterau, finally finished painting
the starboard side main deck that has been in primer since last
November. The also restowed and touched up paint on the floater nets
and did a lot of trim painting.

The regular crew gets short shrift this
month because of the influx of reserves.
The big news is that Rocky got the whaleboat back from Scarano’s
Boatyard and she looks beautiful. And, needless to say, the engineers
are still working on main engine number, the shipfitters are still
working in the forward exhaust fan room, the NPTU Volunteers are
still in the B-4 bilges and our chippers are still chipping the 02
level forward around the pilothouse. Tour guides are still guiding
tours, Smitty
is still cooking, Jim Gelston
is still winding clocks, and contributions continue to come in for
the Hull Fund as we sit moored as before.

Gordon Lattey scored a PR coup by arranging
an unveiling at the US Naval Academy Museum of a recently constructed
model of USS SLATER.On hand
to greet the intricately detailed model that was three and a half
years in the making were volunteer members of the Museum; Greg
Krawczyk, Midshipman Michael FitzGibbon and Gordon
Lattey. Representing the Naval Academy’s Alumni Association,
NY Capital District Chapter were Frank Hughes ‘80, chapter
president, Phil LaBatte‘64 and Gene Griesau’75. The Slater model was built by master ship modeler
Stephen A. Seligman. When Seligman began the project he had no
real idea that it would be the USS Slater. “I began searching the
various websites for information and inspiration,” he said. He
discovered the Slater’s site and traded e-mails with us. Then, on a
trip to the University of Connecticut, Seligman got sidetracked to
Albany. We took Seligman for a keel to foremast tour and turned him
loose with his camera. Several hours and more than four rolls of film
later, Seligman had firmly decided that the model would be USS
Slater. All during construction we continued to trade plans, manuals
and hundreds of pictures to assure the accuracy of the most minute
parts and pieces.

For Naval Academy Plebe FitzGibbon the unveiling was like a
homecoming. He had spent several years volunteering aboard the
Slater while a student at Colonie Central High School prior to
entering the Academy. At Colonie one of his teachers was Barry
Witte, who is also a volunteer aboard the Slater. Witte also
happens to be the Naval Academy’s Blue and Gold Officer; a graduate
who assists prospective midshipmen in making the decision to apply
for admission.

Our best wishes and prayers go out to Trustee Emeritus Paul Czesak
and his family. One of our most dedicated volunteers; Paul has
served as the organizer of all our ceremonies for the past twelve
years, and has always been there for his shipmates. Paul was taken to
Ellis Hospital the last week of the month with what they believe are
complications from Lyme disease. As I write he is still in ICU and we
are wishing him a speedy recovery.

Finally, we remembered out veterans at our 15th
annual Memorial Service on Monday, 28
May. The main organizer of the event couldn’t be with us. Paul
Czesak is in Ellis Hospital
undergoing tests. In his absence, the crew turned out in their dress
whites. Tom DeRouville served
as OOD and Steve Long
as our Master of Ceremony. Ken
Kaskoun led the SLATER Color Guard
as Boatswains Mate Bill Haggart
welcomed dignitaries Assemblymember
Jack McEneny, Former Albany County Executive Mike Breslin, Albany
County Executive Dan McCoy, Rensselaer County Executive Kathy Jimino,
Frank Commisso Sr., Frank Commisso Jr. and
CDR Bill Kraus
aboard. All had touching thoughts of the significance of the day and
thoughts about veterans they had known who had not come home. Dick
Walker served as Chaplain, and Jerry
Jones arranged the music. The high
point as always was firing the gun by Gun Captain Erik
Collin and his crew.
And, our thanks to Ann Morrow who got a great
promo in our Metroland weekly newspaper about the event. It
was a special day to remember our veterans, though in truth, every
day is Memorial Day aboard USS SLATER.